Digimon Xros Wars: The Continued Story
by obsidianlight
Summary: "Perhaps someday I'll meet my wayward little brother again in this world." were the clockmaker's words...As soon as Taiki figured out his true identity, the teen have a feeling that another storm might be brewing. Could he figure out what's going on in time? Or is this just simply paranoia?
1. The calm before the storm?

**A/N: Hello~ This is one of my new fics that I've decided to upload ^^ Earlier this year, I've finished watching Digimon Xros Wars and it really made me feel nostalgic! Although Xros Wars (or more specifically, Young Hunters) isn't the best digimon anime series in my opinion, it still brought up many things that paid homage to the past sesons (from Adventure to Savers) and a crossover too~ (but not all the past characters appeared though...=( ). Furthermore, I wasn't really satisfied with the 'open-ended' finale for Xros Wars..thus I've decided to write this fic ^^ This would be my take on what happened after the ending of Young Hunters..**

**If you're wondering if this fic may or may not become a crossover (from Adventure to Savers), read to find out~ ;)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon, if I did, Young Hunters would definitely have a very different ending.**

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Chapter 1

Summer hung overhead over Tokyo, bringing about a constant heat along with an occasional breeze, trying to minimize the heat as much as possible. Despite the heat, summer was one of the seasons that brought the promise of fun, enjoyment and of course, vacation. Recently, summer could also bring about an adventure, one where Digimon are involved, however, only a certain few knew about it. And three of them are currently focused on a street basketball match...

"Taiki-san!" Amano Yuu called as he made a pass to the latter.

Taiki received the ball and began dribbling it towards the goal, skilfully dodging the opponents as they tried to intercept the ball. Constant cheering from the spectators could be heard as the game went on. It was yet another tournament and team Xros Heart was in the midst of their toughest game yet. Unlike most of their games, the opponents this time were stronger in terms of defences.

Looking left and right, Taiki noticed that his opponents had blocked any possible opening which could lead to a point score for team Xros Heart.

"Damn...Both Tagiru and Yuu are being blocked...looks like I'll have to shoot from here." Taiki thought as he raised the basketball over his head and threw.

A whistle could be heard throughout the basketball court. For a split second, the court was deathly quiet before cheers erupted, signalling the end of a street basketball match.

"36-33. Team Xros Heart wins!" the referee shouted over the thundering cheers and clapping. Like all friendly matches, the players from both teams bowed politely.

"Thank you for the game." The players said in unison before breaking off to their respective groups.

"Man...That was a great game, isn't it? This is officially my 75th victory!" Akashi Tagiru boasted to Yuu who merely rolled his eyes.

"You mean OUR victory. Besides, most of the shots in this game were made by Taiki-san" he sighed, wiping the sweat from his face.

"Now, now, you two..."Taiki began, hoping to calm the two juniors before another argument could erupt. "We've won, and this calls for a celebration!"

"Let's go for some takoyaki!" Tagiru suggested excitedly.

"I agree. I know of a shop not too far from here that sells delicious takoyaki." Yuu added.

"Sure. But now, I'm kinda feeling thirsty..."

"Here you go." A familiar voice said.

"Ah...thanks Akari..." Taiki absentmindedly accepted the drink, "Akari? W-what are you doing here?" he spluttered as he realized that the girl was there.

"I came over to support you guys on your game. It the weekend and I happened to be in the area. Besides, what if you fell unconscious again due to overexertion?" Akari pouted, folding her arms.

"I'm just joking. Want to join us for some takoyaki?" Taiki laughed.

"Sure!" the redhead nodded.

"Taiki-san! I've just remembered! Tagiru and I are meeting Hiroya* for a card game." Yuu interrupted as he pretended to check his phone.

"I don-!" Yuu quickly elbowed his stomach and gave him a quick glare, "I mean, yeah, so I'll guess we'll see you around another day for takoyaki!"

"See you, Taiki-san! Akari-san!" Yuu waved and took off along with Tagiru.

"S-Sure, see you then." Taiki waved, slightly bemused by the sudden behaviour change from the two boys.

"Well, looks like it's just you and me then." Taiki turned to Akari, "So, still up for takoyaki? Or do you have something else in mind?"

"How about some seafood?"Akari suggested, "We can have takoyaki with the others another time."

"Seafood sounds great. So which restaurant are we going?" Taiki and Akari began strolling down the path, oblivious to two pair of eyes spying from the bushes not too far away...

"They're really acting all lovey-dovey. Finally, I got my chance to catch Taiki-san all flustered." Tagiru grinned as he peered over the bushes where currently he and Yuu are hiding.

"Geez, if you do it this way, don't come running to me when Taiki-san gets mad at you." Yuu sighed, "I'd rather we keep watch from here and tease him about it later."

"Yeah, tried telling him that the previously...apart from the last bit" Gumdramon's voice floated out from the xros loader.

"Busting a date is really dame dame" Damemon added from Yuu's xros loader.

"But it's really rare to see Taiki-san in this mood..." Tagiru whined.

"Ah! They're getting too far ahead. Let's go!" Yuu paid no attention to the gogglehead's whining and left his hiding place in the bushes, oblivious to the surprised stares that the passer-bys gave.

"W-wait up! Yuu!" Tagiru called as he too left his hiding spot, causing more surprised stares.

"I'm stuffed! The seafood here is really great!" Taiki stretched his arms as both he and Akari exited from the restaurant.

"Told you so! Never underestimate me when it comes to finding great food to eat!" Akari replied cheerfully.

"As expected from you," Taiki joked, earning a playful smack on the arm. The teen relaxed and looked around, earlier he might not have realized it but the surrounding seemed all too familiar and at the same time, nostalgic.

"Taiki, what's the matter?" Akari turned to her best friend, having noticed that he had gone quiet.

"It's just been six months and yet it feels like only yesterday that we fought against Quartzmon." Taiki answered, his gaze lingered over to Rainbow Bridge where the battle took place.

"Yeah, I'm glad that it's all over." Akari agreed, "That battle nearly scared me half to death..." she added in an undertone.

"What did you say?" Taiki turned, raising his eyebrows.

"Nothing! Nothing at all! Just only agreeing with you," The redhead teen frantically replied, hoping that this will cover what she had just muttered seconds ago. However, she was unable to hide the light blush that surfaced on her cheeks.

"Oh, ok..." Taiki replied, slightly disappointed. He was hoping that his childhood friend would give some hint about her feelings. Taiki had realized quite some time ago that he was falling in love with his best friend. Despite being one of the legendary heroes, the brown-haired teen was still nervous about revealing his feelings to her, for fear it would jeopardize their friendship.

"Look Out!"

Taiki turned around quickly and barely registered what the large object that was flying towards Akari and his direction. Immediately, he pulled Akari towards him and jumped out of harms' way. The two landed at a distance safe from the point of impact. Deciding that it is finally safe, at the moment, Taiki opened his eyes, only to find that a damaged car had been where he and Akari had stood earlier. Cars naturally wouldn't simply fly in the air, even in an accident. There was only one possibility: Digimon.

"Taiki..." Akari had also caught on and had her hand on her xros loader.

"Let's go, Akari. Most likely a digimon got lost here and judging by the car it threw, it's definitely a big one." Taiki swiftly brought out his xros loader and reloaded Shoutmon.

"Let's go! Shoutmon!"

"I'm right behind ya!" Shoutmon smirked and sprinted towards the source, his partner following closely behind.

"Reload, Dorulumon!" within seconds, a wolf-like digimon with orange fur materializing. Surprisingly, no one near the place could see the digimon, apart from Akari and Taiki, of course. After the battle with Quartzmon, Digimon had become invisible to the humans, except for those who weld the xros loaders. Akari was thankful for that. She couldn't imagine how the people would react after seeing a giant wolf-like creature appearing out of nowhere.

Dorulumon wordlessly gave chase, with Akari following closely behind. The digimon purposely slowed his pace in order for her to catch up. Though it would be better that Akari ride on his back, he knew that it would be a bad idea. Yes, he may be invisible, but Akari wasn't and a girl sitting on something invisible would attract lots of unwanted attention.

The group ran across the street closer to the source of the attack. There, a snake-like digimon was wreaking havoc. Its eyes darted wildly from side to side, uprooting anything that stood in its path, oblivious to the blazing flames that surrounded it, mainly caused by the objects it had thrown.

"Soul Crusher!" Shoutmon unleashed his attack upon spotting the attacker. The attack made its mark, successfully getting the digimon's attention.

"That's Sandiramon!" Dorulumon recognized the digimon as he stood protectively in front of Akari. "Be careful. This digimon is rather smart..."

"Time for a change in the human world...a new order must come into place." Sandiramon hissed and returned with an attack, which would have hit its desired target if not for the digimon and their partners narrowly dodging out of the way.

"W-what do you mean?" Taiki asked, however, the snake digimon merely attacked again, causing the group to dodge away.

"Amazing...I expected that it would attack us but the speed of it is another thing." Taiki commented as he helped Akari up with one hand while the other dusted off the debris that landed on his clothes. It was obvious that Sandiramon would not let out any other information and to get any out, their best chance was to attack and win.

"Looks like this will be a tough one to beat." Dorulumon shrugged off a small boulder that fell on him.

"Are you scared? Dorulumon? If you are, you can always go back to Akari's xros loader." Shoutmon smirked as he kept his eye on Sandiramon, in case the latter decided to attack again.

"Right back at ya. Let's finish this quickly." Dorulumon leapt forward and charged towards the snake-like digimon, baring his fangs, closely followed by Shoutmon, who had his staff raised, ready for any oncoming attacks.

"Dorulu Tornado!"

"Rowdy Rocker!"

"Do you think this can really stop me?"

With a flick of its tail, Sandiramon swatted off the attack as if they were mere flies. Although its tail did not come into contact with either digimon, the force of it was strong enough to blow the two to a considerable distance, leaving Taiki and Akari open and defenceless.

"Taiki, any ideas?" Akari gulped nervously as she glanced at teen.

As much as Taiki wanted to reply and assure her that he's got a plan, he couldn't think of any. With his eyes focused on Sandiramon which was currently attacking Shoutmon and Dorulumon, the teen racked his brain for any ideas that may give them an advantage over the snake. Shoutmon could evolve to Omegashoutmon and be on par in terms of power; however, Sandiramon had an advantage in terms of speed. Other ideas also surfaced, Shoutmon X4 could take him down. However, he reminded himself that Ballistamon was no longer in his xros loader and dismissed the idea. The only other digimon that is currently in his xros loader were the starmons. Taiki thought of reloading them but soon dismissed the thought as well. Although the Starmons were in great numbers, it still wouldn't be enough. Sandiramon would be way too powerful.

"If only Yuu and Tagiru were here..." Taiki thought.

"Taiki-san!" Tagiru's voice could be faintly heard a little distance away.

"Tagiru?" both Taiki and Akari turned their heads and spotted the boy running over to them, with a purple digimon and a blond teen with his partner in tow.

"Let's go, Gumdramon! Chou-shnka!" Tagiru raised his crimson xros loader. Seconds later, a larger dragon stood in place of the tiny dragon.

"Attack! Arrestadramon!" Tagiru yelled, eyes burning brightly with determination.

"Prism Garrett!"

Arrestadramon's attack had hit its mark straight on, causing Sandiramon to fall. The digimon cried out in pain and hissed angrily after recovering from the attack. Seeing this as an opportunity, Dorulumon jumped onto the snake digimon, in an attempt to hold it back down while the young hunters could capture it. Unfortunately, this proved futile as Sandiramon swung its body with great force, causing Dorulumon to lose his grip on the latter and was sent flying to about a few feet away from where the others stood.

"Dorulumon! Are you alright?" Akari cried. Before anybody could stop her, she had rushed over to the fallen digimon; completely disregarding the fact that now she's out in the open.

"Akari! Stay back...!" Dorulumon managed to gasp as he tried not to mind the steadily increasing pain at his side. Unnoticed by the pair, Sandiramon swiftly flicked the spear it was holding towards them.

"Akari!" Taiki cried, desperately trying to warn the girl of the impending danger. He sprinted towards her as fast as his legs could run. His legs were screaming in protest, mainly from the earlier basketball match. The teen ignored it and pushed on, saving his friend was more important. He could worry about aching feet after the fight.

"Tagiru, let's get Arrestdramon and Damemon to attack Sandiramon." Yuu said swiftly and Tagiru nodded in reply before giving the command to attack.

Both Akari and Dorulumon noticed the spear a moment too late, the digimon tried to push himself and his partner away from the path of the attack but his injury was preventing him from doing so, leaving both of them vulnerable to the attack.

"Go, Akari, get out of the way...I'll be fine." Dorulumon coughed as he nudged her with his snout. Akari merely shook her head, words unable to form in her mouth. Although she was scared, she still wanted Dorulumon to be safe. If anything were to happen, she was not sure how would she react, not to mention, Cutemon as well. Closing her eyes, the girl hugged Dorulumon tightly and braced for the impact. Surprisingly, it never came. Instead, she felt a pair of arms wrapped around her body protectively.

"Rowdy Rocker!"

"Thanks! Shoutmon." Taiki heaved a sigh of relief, as he lifted his head. "Maybe you can go help Tagiru and the others?"

"Nah, the juniors are handling themselves quite well. No need for me to interfere."

Exactly, as Shoutmon said, both Arrestadramon and Damemon were handling Sandiramon easily. Within seconds, the snake digimon was defeated, seemingly dissolving into thin air and reappearing in Yuu's xros loader, for Damemon had delivered the final blow prior to its capture.

"Digimon capture complete!"

"Yuu! I wanted that digimon" Tagiru whined, pouting.

Taiki smiled before turning his attention towards Akari, "Are you okay?" he asked as he pulled her to her feet gently.

"I'm fine. Just a little shaken up, I guess..." Akari replied as she got Dorulumon back into her xros loader to recuperate.

"Don't ever do that again. I was scared that something would happen to you." Taiki hugged her tightly.

Akari gasped in surprise as Taiki hugged her. He rarely does this, even in their adventure in the digtal world last year. Still slightly shaken up, Akari could merely nod and agree, returning the hug at the same time.

"Hey...lovebirds..." Tagiru teased as he and Yuu made their way towards them. The comment made both Taiki and Akari to jump apart and blush furiously.

"S-Stop it! Tagiru. We're n-not l-l-lovebirds..." Akari sputtered as she tried to minimize the blush that has crept onto her face.

"Shoutmon, get Tagiru." Taiki smiled. That smile on his face was way too suspicious to be even considered as an innocent one.

"Eh? What?" Tagiru was about to further tease the couple when he heard Taiki's words. Before he could reply, an angry red digimon came up and hit him with his mic. Tagiru managed to dodge at the last moment, thanks to his fast reflexes. Without further thought or comment, Tagiru sprinted down the street yelling, with Shoutmon close behind and also with Gumdramon berating him along the way.

"Well...don't mind me. I just happened to be passing by." Yuu laughed weakly before running off in the opposite direction.

"Let's go, Akari." Taiki turned and walked down the street.

"T-Taiki, are you sure Tagiru will be alright?" she asked nervously as she glanced over at the direction where Shoutmon had chased Tagiru.

"Don't worry. I'm not chasing Tagiru. That was merely a hologram that you saw earlier." Shoutmon's voice chuckled through Taiki's xros loader. "A new xros loader function that Taiki found out about not too long ago." He added.

"Tagiru will be really mad if he finds out about this." Akari laughed.

"It'll be more likely for him to ask how I did that." Taiki smiled as he and Akari strolled down the streets. "Come on, let's get you home." The teen and his childhood friend chatted along the way, catching up on lost time.

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**A/N: And that concludes the first chapter for now...More characters will appear as the story progresses, so stay tuned~ =P**

**Please read & review~! :)**


	2. Gathering the Players

_**A/N: Thank you for your reviews in the previous chapter! I appreciate it! :D Here's chapter 2 of the story! My Christmas present to you readers, Hope all of you are enjoying the holidays~! Wanted to post this much much earlier but wasn't able to...due to various reasons..this chapter is a little short though, but hope you'll enjoy it nonetheless :)**_

_**Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year! =D**_

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Chapter 2:

This week has been a fairly normal week. Akari thought to herself, normal in the sense that there were no digimon that needs to be hunted or any extraordinary phenomenon occurring. Basically speaking, it was like the life that she was supposed to have if she hadn't met any digimon. Not that she was complaining, but it had felt weird to have a whole week without hearing anything that is or may be digimon-related.

"Bye! Akari!" her friend waved to her breaking the redhead out from her thoughts.

"Bye! Misaki!" Akari waved back as she and her friend parted ways at the school gate, where swarms of students were filtering out and going home or somewhere else for the day. The redhead soon returned back to her thoughts. Ever since that incident with Sandiramon last week, she couldn't help but wonder about digimon. After she and Taiki returned home, Akari's mom freaked upon seeing her eldest daughter and her best friend covered in bits of debris and some cuts and bruises. The pair of them had pretty much looked like they had just escaped from a demolished building.

Fortunately, the pair managed to convince her mom that they were just hanging out when a serious accident had taken place with the car colliding into a building, thus the debris bits. Since Taiki wasn't the type to walk away, he went to help along with Akari, hence their cuts and bruises. Sighing with exasperation, Mrs Hinomoto lightly reprimanded the two that they might have been in any unnecessary danger if anything had gone wrong, like if there was a fuel leak, for example.

Akari let out a sigh, enjoying the cool breeze that gently passed through the street as she made her way home. Other than digimon, there was one other constantly on her mind, Taiki. Over the years, she had realized that she had developed a crush on her childhood friend and with each passing year, he grew more handsome, making her falling for him even more.

"...wonder...if he feels the same way..." Akari wondered, a light blush forming on her cheeks.

"Thinking of Taiki, kyuu?" Cutemon's voice floated out of her xros loader.

"Cutemon?! How d-d-did-" the girl sputtered, trying to hide her blush but only succeeding in blushing harder

"Hehe...your face says it all." Dorulumon's voice snickered from the xros loader.

"Kyuu!"

"I-i-it's not lik-"

"Ah! You're the girl with the cute digimon." A voice interrupted Akari and her digimon, causing them to turn their attention to a twin-ponytailed girl standing across the street.

The redhead immediately recognized her as Airu Suzaki. She had heard about the blonde from Tagiru and the others who had described her as a person with a weird obsession for anything cute and Yuu, to which the youth had adamantly disagreed. Although Akari had briefly met her during the final battle with Quartzmon, the two had yet to exchange words and from what Akari had observed, Airu is a little whiny though deep down inside, she does care for her digimon. Whether is the latter aware of it, is another question altogether.

"Your name's Airu, right?"Akari nodded, acknowledging her.

"Yep, and you're Hikari? I believe we've met in that great battle last year." Airu answered as she crossed the street and walked over to her.

"It's Akari." The redhead replied with a sigh, "Anyway, it's nice to meet you but I need to run some errands. We could probably meet someday to get to know each other more." She added with a smile.

"Whoa! Wait a moment!" Airu raised a hand to stop her, "I wanted to ask you if I can borrow your cute digimon for a while, I need it for a hunt."

"Borrow Cutemon?" Akari repeated cautiously, raising an eyebrow as she wondered whether it'll be a good idea to agree to the request. Maybe the guys were right about her...

"Yeah, I-" Airu was about to continue when a bright flash of light gained her attention, along with Akari's. The latter's eyes closed on reflex but soon opened a fraction to get a proper look at the situation. Upon catching a glimpse, Akari couldn't help but let out a gasp, having a feeling almost like déjà vu, she couldn't believe that it was happening again, like one and a half years ago. Before she could process her thoughts on the various possibilities of it occurring, Airu had taken a step forward towards the light.

"Airu! Don't go any further! I think that's the-" Akari tried to warn her but to no avail. Airu was completely mesmerized by the bright light and began to raise her hand to touch it, leaving Akari with no choice but to rush forward and try to pull her back. Unfortunately, the blonde's hand came into contact with the light before Akari could do anything about it. The light flashed brightly again upon contact, causing the two girls to use their arms to shield their eyes, leaving them vulnerable.

The light continued shining brightly for a few seconds before dying down, leaving everything as it was before. The two girls who had been standing there before had disappeared without a trace, as if they were never there in the first place. Everything and everyone in the surrounding continued about their daily activities, not knowing that two teens had just disappeared into thin air.

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"Digimon capture complete!" Tagiru swiped his crimson digivice, "Yes! Another digimon to my collection!" the gogglehead jumped in joy as he high-fived his partner.

"Seriously, are you going to act like this every time you hunted a digimon?" Yuu sighed, while Damemon quietly returned to his xrosloader. Both he and Tagiru had just completed a hunt. The digimon in the spotlight happened to be causing chaos in the streets near their school. To be more specific, it was a group of Elecmons which had taken a liking to everything electrical, causing stuff to go haywire just like the time with Ganemon. For the two teens, it had proved to be a little annoying for they had to chase and capture the Elecmons, it was almost like trying to catch a fish using bare hands.

Their senior, Taiki, wasn't with them for this hunt. The older teen had mentioned that he needed to run some errands for his mother and that both of them would have been sufficient for the hunt. However, this wasn't the first time that Taiki sat out of the hunt, ever since the digimon attack last week. For some reason unknown, the teen has been creating excuses to run a number of errands or help requests.

"Wonder what Taiki-san is thinking..."

"Hey, Yuu! Are you listening?" Tagiru snapped his fingers, breaking the blond boy from his thoughts.

"Uhh...no...Sorry, my mind was elsewhere..." Tagiru was about to retort back but was soon interrupted.

"AMANO YUU!" a new voice could be heard from the distance, startling the duo and causing them to look back to find an ever eccentric Zenjirou running towards them at top speed.

"Have y-you heard t-the news?" Zenjirou paused briefly to catch his breath, "Y-y-your sister is dating Kiriha!"

"EH?!" Tagiru gasped loudly.

"Yeah. So?"

"You knew about this?!" Zenjirou cried, shaking Yuu back and forth while holding his shoulders.

"...I thought it was obvious, didn't you two realise anything going on between the two of them since last year? I'm finally glad-" Yuu stopped mid-sentence upon noticing the other two expressions.

"Ahh...there goes my chance to impress Nene-san" Tagiru whined, "I thought she has a good impression about me, especially after saving the world..."

"Nene, after all my efforts to impress you..." Zenjirou slumped dramatically to the ground, apparently in his own world.

"You guys..." the blond teen didn't know whether to laugh or comfort them in this situation.

Before either of them got to utter another word, a streak of light caught their eyes. At first, it might have seemed as if it came from a spotlight that has been switched on. However, the moment, the teens' attention were on it, the light had somehow started towards them.

"RUN!" the three of them had immediately sensed that something was up. Unfortunately, before any of them could think or ask why, the light engulfed them and faded away like a mastermind criminal from a crime scene, leaving no trace behind that they were once there.

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"My generals, everything is going accordingly as planned." A digimon bowed respectfully as he reported the news to a seemingly empty room. It was dimly lit to the point that a human would have to squint in order to make out the outline of the room, let alone trying to identify if anyone other than the digimon is there. However, to a digimon, it is a different story altogether.

"Carry on with it. I don't consider a plan to be successful until it is fully carried out." A reply came from the darkness. There was finality in his tone which signalled for the servant to take his leave. The digimon saluted respectfully before retreating out of the room and closing the door after him. As soon as the door snapped shut, a figure stepped out from the darkness in the room but only enough to reveal his outline.

"As long as the plan goes smoothly, our goals will be achieved in no time." the figure commented. He was not alone. Two other figures stood on either side of him, gloating at the good news. Unlike the last time, the plan that is currently in action is flawless. Every possible loophole of the plan has been carefully backed-up just in case. This time, they know that they're prepared and won't lose. As soon as all the necessary players have gathered, it'll be the signal for them to make their move, like a predator moving in for the kill.

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_**A/N: Leaving it like this for now ^^ Stay tuned for the next chapter to find out what happens~ Please read & review ^^**_


	3. The Wheels are Set in Motion

_**Thank you for all your reviews/favorites/alerts! Although I did not reply to reviews lately, it still brings a smile to my face when I see it! Makes me want to upate even more~~ I know I haven't updated in a while but juggling both work and school from Monday to Friday is quite a chore I'm often feeling too drained in the weekends to do anything...=x**_

_**I should really be studying for a test tomorrow...but it seems that I have more motivation to upload this story instead ^-^ Oh, the ideas/inspiration that just come up during this period, makes it too irresistable xD**_

_**Hehe...with this story uploaded, guess it's time to get back to studying...-_-**_

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Chapter 3:

"Digimon Capture Complete!" Tagiru swiped his crimson digivice, "Yes! Another digimon to my collection!" The gogglehead jumped in joy and as he and Yuu returned back to the human world. Both Gumdramon and Damemon have returned immediately into their respective partners' xros loaders, before anyone could get a glimpse of them.

"Seriously...are you going to act like this everytime you hunt a digimon?" Yuu sighed. Both he and Tagiru had been out hunting a digimon that has been causing problems in the streets nearby their school. The digimon, an elecmon, was apparently, using its powers on any electronic it sees, causing the said electrical item to go haywire and thus causing a problem to the people. To anyone who had been on at least one digimon hunt, would have known straightaway that an elecmon was 'easy picking'. However, it proved more than that as the Elecmon had been quick-witted enough to outsmart the boys and their digimon until it accidentally tripped over Gumdramon's tail and eventually got captured.

"Yup! This means, being one step closer to surpassing Taiki's collection of digimon!" the teenager skipped around in joy, before coming to an abrupt stop, "Speaking of Taiki-senpai, where did he go?"

"He said he had some errands to run and asked us to go ahead with the hunt..." Yuu sighed in exasperation, "If you had stayed on for about 2 seconds, you might have heard him say that..."

"What did you say..." Tagiru growled in annoyance, while Gumdramon merely sighed from inside the xros-loader, knowing full-well that an argument is about to break out.

As Yuu opened his mouth to retort, a loud voice in the distance caught both teens' attention.

"AMANO YUU!"

The voice happened to belong to a guy by the name of Tsurugi Zenjirou. Yes, the same guy who had constantly challenged Taiki to a kendo rematch, which the latter constantly declined and the one who fell head over heels for the now popular idol, Amano Nene, Yuu's older sister. At the speed Zenjirou was running at, one can really wonder what was it about that made the teen run that fast.

In a matter of seconds, Zenjirou reached both of them, panting hard as if he had run a marathon. Once regaining his breath, Zenjirou grabbed Yuu by the shoulders, startling the younger teen, "Have y-you seen the news?!"

"What sort of news?" Yuu raised an eyebrow, wondering what sort of news he is referring to exactly.

"THIS!" Zenjirou exclaimed before holding up a newspaper article. Tagiru who happened to be 'excluded from the conversation' peered over the blond teen's shoulders and his eyes widened upon laying on the article headline, or more specifically the picture featured in the article.

"Company Successor & Rising Star Idol: Aonuma Kiriha and Amano Nene...DATING?!" Tagiru exclaimed the last part as he read the headline out loud. He opened and closed his mouth repeatedly like a fish gasping for breath when it's out of the water before recovering and turning to face Yuu.

"Your sister is dating Kiriha?! Since when?!" Zenjirou cried, while Tagiru nodded in agreement. Yuu could only chuckle weakly and step back from the two eccentric teens, there's no telling how they would react if he gave his answer.

"Now, now, you two..." he began, resulting in the 2 teens leaning in closer and him backing away further, "it's true that my sister is dating Kiriha-san but I only got to know it a month ago when she spoke to me over the phone. Believe me I was as...surprised as you are at that time." It was partially true, though Yuu had known for about a couple of months already. Since the battle against Quartzmon, he had noticed that his sister and Kiriha had gotten much closer and pretty protective over each other. Initially, he tried teasing his elder sister about it but she kept denying it until one day she actually confirmed it.

"Nene-san! I've never get to tell you my feelings!" Tagiru cried, slumping in defeat.

"Ah! I've confessed to you and you didn't return my feelings..." Zenjirou too slumped, his 'manly' tears pouring out of his eyes.

Yuu stared at this dramatic scene speechlessly, torn between wanting to tell them 'I told you so' or something along these lines or just let them be. At the same time, he was trying his best to hold back his laughter. Both Tagiru and Zenjirou looked very much like a pair of comedians who have lost the 'heart' of a beautiful lady, who in this case is Nene. Yuu wisely opted for the second option of leaving them alone, knowing that with this dramatic pair, things can be rather unpredictable. Unfortunately, he couldn't hold back his laughter and burst out uncontrollably, causing both guys to look up at him teary-eyed. This made the blond laugh harder.

"Damn you, Yuu..." Tagiru growled

Yuu was about to react but soon his eye caught a white light in the distance, initially, he thought that it was sunlight but then his eyes widened as he noticed that the light was getting closer and was picking up speed. To make things worse, it was heading towards their direction.

"RUN!" Yuu turned and ran at top speed.

"Oh yes, Yuu. You better run..." Tagiru cackled, failing to notice the light that was heading towards them.

"Yuu's right. RUN!" Zenjirou tugged on the boy's sleeve making him to start running as well.

"Ok, you go left and I'll go right" Tagiru grinned maniacally.

"Tagiru-kun, I would love to agree with you, but at the moment could turn back and LOOK AT OUR CURRENT SITUATION?!" Zenjirou cried, obviously freaking out.

Finally, Tagiru turned and looked. It was barely a full second that he turned back, the teen started running forward at top speed, crying out "Let me through" at the same time. Zenjirou, for a moment, was amazed at how fast the younger teen could run, started to slow down. Soon, his senses alerted him to the current danger he was in.

"Ah! This is no time to be amazed! I'm not going to be the first one to get shot by the beam!" the older teen cried, picking up his speed as well, closing the gap between Yuu and Tagiru. Just with Airu and Akari, the light had sensed that their speed has increased and sped up as well, engulfing them just as easily.

Once again, the light disappeared and left no trace of the teens being there. The street bustled on with its usual activity

* * *

In another part of the city, Taiki strolled along the pavement on the way home of completing some errands for his mother. As he strolled, a light constant breeze kept blowing, perfect as the sun was sweltering high above in the afternoon sky.

Taiki's mind randomly wandered through various thoughts and imaginations before deciding to settle on the questions about the clockmaker. The ever mysterious clockmaker had revealed about his identity as Bagramon, it left an unsettling feeling in him. Although the digimon claimed that he wanted to try 'protecting the world this time', Taiki felt that there might be a double meaning to his words.

"I wonder what his motives are..." he mumbled aloud to himself.

"What are you thinking about? Taiki?" Shoutmon's voice floated from his xros loader.

"Shoutmon!" Taiki looked around briefly before answering.

"What's on your mind? You seem rather distracted..." the digimon king asked, "is it about digimon?"

Once making sure that there was nobody looking, the gogglehead took out his xros loader, "I guess you can say that..." he replied as he sat down on an empty bench and began telling the latter about the clockmaker's revelation and the ambiguous comment he made. Having matured over the years and being the digimon king, Shoutmon listened patiently to his partner until he had finished, with no questions asked in between.

"Okay...so you mean to tell me that THIS MUCH HAPPENED AND YOU'RE ONLY TELLING ME NOW?!" Shoutmon exclaimed, momentarily startling his partner. For a moment, it had seemed that the digimon king had returned to his old self when he first met Taiki.

"Like I've said, I wasn't sure until recently." Taiki defended.

"But...are you sure that you're not reading too much into this? I mean Bagramon might have really turned over a new leaf." Shoutmon reasoned.

"That's why I have not told anyone yet...who knows how would they react...particularly Tagiru." Taiki sighed.

"If you put it that way, I guess you'll have to keep a closer eye on that old geezer...but only when I'm with you, I don't really want that incident to happen again." Shoutmon said finally. It had been a scary experience, when Ryoma had stabbed Taiki without any warning. Even though he managed to block the full stab that was meant to be delivered to his partner, Shoutmon feared for his life especially when blood started seeping through his shirt.

"Sure, Sh-!" Taiki's voice suddenly faltered and then followed with a surprised shout.

"Taiki! What's wrong? Taiki! Answer me!" Shoutmon cried through the xros loader, becoming more and more worried as no reply could be heard from the teen. Determined to get out to see what was wrong, the digimon king pushed with all his might, trying to get out of the xros loader.

Upon breaking free with ease, Shoutmon looked around for any sign of Taiki, hardly noticing the change in the surrounding environment.

"Taiki!" he exclaimed upon spotting his a little way off, unconscious, but otherwise okay. As soon as Shoutmon reached him, he briefly checked to see if there was any injuries and sighed with relief after confirming there was none, save for a couple of minor bruises.

"Taiki" Shoutmon called as he shook the boy gently.

"Ugh...Shoutmon?" Taiki moaned, still slightly dazed.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I think so..." Taiki hand went up to his head while the other held onto Shoutmon as the digimon helped him up. "Where are we?"

It was only then did Shoutmon take in his surroundings. The bustling city he had expected to see was nowhere in sight and instead, it was replaced with a grassy meadow that seemed to stretch on forever. No wonder it was much easier to get out of the xros loader...why didn't he realize it earlier?

"Shoutmon, are we..."

"Yeah. We're no longer in the human world but the digital world." Shoutmon confirmed, he had a bad feeling about this.

* * *

"My generals! Status update report! The humans are being sighted in the digital world!" a troopmon reported to three figures standing in the shadows.

"Perfect! Now run along and commence the plan! The time of revenge has come Kudou Taiki!" one of the figures stepped out into the light, revealing himself to be Tactimon.

"Hmm...? There are some newbies too, time to get back into action!" Blastmon added, now fully grown back to his original form.

"Don't get too excited, Blastmon. We've got plenty of time to play with those brats and the generals as well"

"Please, don't get too complacent, my three generals. You don't want to be making the same mistake as the last time, won't you?" a voice echoed through the room.

"No, my lord. We'll do everything to make sure everything goes according to plan." Tactimon bowed respectfully towards the sound of the voice, this action was also mimicked by blastmon and lilithmon.

"Good, report to me regularly and make sure to give the kids a warm welcome..."

"Yes, my lord" all three generals were smirking evilly, each having their own plan to present their 'welcome'.

"With them unaware of what's going on, restoring our former glory will be a piece of cake!" Blastmon roared as he left the room, leaving only Tactimon and Lilithmon in the room.

"So Tactimon, I've heard that you've been given another mission other than this one..." she started.

"Oh? You need not concern yourself with that, since you'll need your utmost concentration...in order not to make any blunders like the last time." He replied coolly before stalking out of the room.

"That Tactimon! I'll be sure to get back at him! With him out of the way, I'll be the top general" Lilithmon was clearly not satisfied with the samurai digimon's answer at all and stalked off to her room.

Once entering her quarters, she pointed at a digimon, "You there!"

"Yes, ma'am!" the digimon, a pipismon, saluted her.

"Go find out what other mission that Tactimon has and report back to me once you find out something." She ordered.

The digimon bowed and left the room.

"In the meantime, I'll just go take a look at my prey..." she strode over to a water basin and waved her hands over it, her smile widened as soon as the water showed an image of her target or rather, targets.

"Don't worry, little ones. Lilithmon is going to spend time playing with you and you won't be bored." Lilithmon taunted as she peered through the water basin until the image fully faded away.

* * *

"Fresh report, all the players are now in the digital world." Clockmon reported as he waddled into the room. It had no lighting or furniture, the only source of light came through a small dusty window. To sum it up, the room looked almost like a prison.

"Good. Now, all we have to do is to watch how the story unfolds from here..." The old man replied quietly, leaning forward from his seat.

* * *

_**A/N: And that's all for chapter 3...what I can say is that this chapter had turned out very differently from when I've first drafted it...Yep, I've changed lots of things in the chapter as I typed it out. How did you like it? Good? Bad? Average? **_

_**This chapter sort of sets the plot in motion, lots of questions were raised:**_

_**Whose voice do you think that spoke to the three generals?**_

_**What is the extra mission that was given to Tactimon?**_

_**Who did Lilithmon see in her water basin? What does she have in store for them?**_

_**The clockmaker and his digimon, friend or foe?**_

_**So many questions and all of them will be answered in later chapters...**_

_**I'll try to get another chapter out as soon as I can though I can't be sure when...but don't worry, I won't leave this story hanging. **_

_**Please do leave a review/favorite/alert! ^^**_


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